Upset by way govmt is managing disability benefits change

You're not the only one. I manage to do some artwork, but I can only spend a handful of hours a month on it, and I can't even guarantee I can do that.

If starving me was going to make me well enough to work, it would have happened by now. It's actually only made me more sick and less capable.

I really hope you don't get to the point of feeling suicidal. I'm sending you a massive hug x

I do think things have spiralled out of control, and I personally know people who are claiming disability benefits that don't really need them. So I am on board in principal with the idea of tightening up.

My concern is that the instruments that the government is proposing to use in order to achieve this are simply too blunt. The points-based scoring process doesn't allow for nuance or for individual differences, and reduces people's complex needs to faceless numbers. The fear is that people who genuinely cannot work but don't tick the boxes for whatever reason will slip through the net. What will happen to those people? We don't yet know.

We ideally need to have a proper assessment process which looks at individual needs and abilities at the start of the process. Failing that, at the very least, we need a functioning appeals process that can override the points based assessments for those who evidently can't work but don't meet the standard criteria.

I'll probably get flamed for this but I think it may have been better to reduce the amounts for all rather than the current propositions that will exclude large numbers from getting PIP at all as well as potentially losing the LCWRA element of UC as well. Better a reduction for all rather than a million being plunged into poverty overnight. I do appreciate many are not getting the highest rates, but with so many on the lower daily living rate being at risk of their awards being stopped altogether and with so much else depending on daily living ( carers allowance, severe disability premiums for older people etc) it does need a rethink as to how best to reduce costs. Sorry there are no easy answers. I'm sorry but I think giving highest rate mobility £75 a week to people unable to leave the house due to anxiety seriously needs looking at.

I'm scared too. I'm also at the point of feeling deeply ashamed that I have an illness that prevents me from working. I've attempted voluntary work for a few years but the most I can do is 1-2 hours a week and even that not consistently.

I know many people play the system and something has to give. But taking pip away from all but the most incapacitated people and expecting everyone else to somehow be capable of work regardless of being clearly unwell/in severe pain is not the way. Who the hell is going to employ us anyway?

There will be a lot of suicides and I understand why. I might be in that position myself.

People rubbing their hands together at this news have no understanding what it is like to be so genuinely unwell and desperate to work but having a body or mind that won't cooperate.

I completely agree with this. A massive reason for the rise in claimants is underfunding of the NHS, and the government shows no real intent to fix that in a meaningful way. It’s all very well to try to cut money to claimants, but what are they supposed to do if they have exactly the same problem, no medical treatment (or therapy), and then no money for aids or care? Such a dereliction of duty. Many people wouldn’t need to claim if the NHS was functional.

They’ve also totally ignored long Covid as a factor in rising claims, and they make no significant mitigation efforts in terms of stemming the ongoing, rising numbers of people still contracting Covid and developing post viral symptoms.

It’s obvious that the nhs is failing people and they can’t get the care and treatment needed. As you say PIP is often spent on things like cleaners carers therapy etc which shows a clear issue in the social care area. If the nhs and social services were fixed the benefits bill would reduce naturally.

I followed it fine, thanks. (But if I hadn’t, that would be a cognitive deficit, and you’d be attacking someone based on a disability.) My point was that you attacked that poster as if she’d done something wrong, but she was merely clarifying and correcting a factual inaccuracy. Your vitriol is not justified towards either her or me.

They said under 22 so DLA will be affected, there's lots of families on the Contact group that are not happy because dla is under the age of 22.

I think this is a conspiracy level take (about relaxing the rules deliberately in response to these cuts), but I do also agree with you that assisted dying has scary potential for slippery slope issues. Look at MAID in Canada and how that has been abused. I’m not 100% against assisted dying but it needs to be restricted to only definitively terminal conditions.

Ok, you’re a conspiracy theorist

why do you think they àre pushing assisted dying so hard at the moment.
Call me a conspiracy theorist but I think the rules will v quickly be relaxed to cover those who don't have any quality of life left etc
Just think.of all the money they could potentially save!
It is chilling imo.

Couldn’t agree more. Went to the dentist recently about getting a retainer for bruxism. He asked if I was anxious and had I considered antidepressants! I’m sure he wouldn’t have said that to a man.

Don’t be ridiculous! Who has said we have to work 70 hour weeks?

These changes rely on employers taking on people who may need remote working, flexible hours, recognition of increased time off - if this doesn't happen, how will they be employed?

My role is going well at work and I'm getting an apprentice this year. I could take an apprentice with additional support needs as elements of the role can be done over a longer time period and remotely. But I also have experience in this area and work somewhere with the mentality to try and make these kinds of things work. That is really not the case everywhere. Loads of employers don't even want to have to bother taking on young people and training them so how open minded will they be for higher needs?

People make assumptions about deaf people, blind people, wheelchair users etc and the vast majority of these people can work full time with reasonable adjustments or equipment.

Yes those terrible disabled people who need people to help them even get out of bed in the morning let alone get washed and dressed they should all be ashamed of not doing a 70 hour week. Shame on them..

You have completely misread my post, maybe take a deep breath and try again.

I was supporting you saying that the comments other posters are making about making yourself more employable by your next review were utterly ridiculous in many cases.

And I wished you all the best going forward for you and the girls

Not my fault if you can't follow a conversation.

Both city and county councils in my area are almost bankrupt already without this happening ! We will just see even more massive Council tax hikes !

Sorry I should point out that many won't see state pension as a benefit, I was just trying to point out that the amounts that are being paid out to a lot of individuals.

How does transferring the cost from carers to local authorities help "get our country back in its feet"?

It would not be enough to live off. That could potentially leave them with only a couple of hundred pounds a month after they've paid to top up their rent (because you only get market rate) for food, gas, electric, water, some council tax, internet, and every other possible bill and expense.

If I was healthy, lost my job and couldn't find another, it would be in my interests to persuade people I was unwell with something, just so I could actually survive. I'm not saying that people are doing that, but it makes logical sense and I would find it hard to blame someone for doing that, given the pittance job seekers are expected to live on.

The only good thing Labour has proposed with all this is raising the basic rate slightly so people can survive a period of joblessness.

We will all have to make sacrifices to get our country back in its feet. Oh I forgot! Some people don’t want to.

By the time these changes/ reforms even come in and start to make savings ( if they even do? ), there will already be another million claiming PIP if the current forcasts are correct. And this is just working age disability benefits, you also have massive increased in children's DLA claims and massive numbers of pensioners claiming AA for years on end and all the extra pension credit etc that comes with that for some. I work in benefits see f the amounts that people are claiming. . A very frequent scenario I see is someone just turned pension age getting their state pension £222 a week, then often high rates of PIP both components £175 a week, pension credit with severe disability premium £82 a week, all rent and council tax covered in full because they claim pension credit, and even for the ones owning their own homes some are getting almost £500 a week in benefits . I understand of course that not everyone going into retirement will be on highest rates of PIP so will be less for some How are these amounts sustainable? I am mid fifties and one thing I can guarantee is that by the time I'm a pensioner there will certainly be nothing left in the pot for my generation !